1998 in literature
The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books. Events *March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première. *November 18 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy. *Following the death of Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, there is a gap of several months before a successor is appointed. New prose fiction *Tariq Ali - The Book of Saladin *Aaron Allston **Iron Fist **''Wraith Squadron'' *Hanan al-Shaykh - I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops *Martin Amis - Heavy Water and Other Stories (most stories previously published) *Beryl Bainbridge - Master Georgie *Iain M. Banks - Inversions *Julian Barnes - England, England *Greg Bear **''Dinosaur Summer'' **''Foundation and Chaos'' *Raymond Benson - The Facts of Death *Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny - Psychoshop *Rituparna Bhattacharjee - Bhutia *Robert Bloch - Flowers from the Moon and Other Lunacies *William Boyd - Armadillo *Driss Chraibi - Muhammad *Mary Higgins Clark - All Through the Night *Tom Clancy - Rainbow Six *Paulo Coelho - Veronika Decides to Die *Michael Connelly - Blood Work *Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Triumph *Patricia Cornwell - Point of Origin *Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma *Ann C. Crispin - Rebel Dawn *Michael Cunningham - The Hours *Nelson DeMille - Plum Island (novel) *August Derleth **''The Final Adventures of Solar Pons'' **''In Lovecraft's Shadow'' *Peter Dickinson - The Kin *Allan W. Eckert - Return to Hawk's Hill *Giles Foden - The Last King of Scotland *Diana Gabaldon - Hellfire *Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors (most of the contained stories previously published) *Andrew Greeley - A Midwinter's Tale *John Grisham - The Street Lawyer *Ha Jin - Waiting *Tomson Highway - Kiss of the Fur Queen *Nick Hornby - About a Boy *John Irving - A Widow for One Year *K. W. Jeter **''The Mandalorian Armor'' **''Slave Ship'' *Wayne Johnston - The Colony of Unrequited Dreams *Stephen King - Bag of Bones *Dean R. Koontz - Seize the Night *Ian McEwan - Amsterdam *Roy MacLaren - African Exploits *Steve Martin - Pure Drivel *Carol Matas - Greater Than Angels *Toni Morrison - Paradise *Alice Munro - The Love of a Good Woman *Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle *Cees Nooteboom - All Souls' Day *Tim O'Brien - Tomcat in Love *Orhan Pamuk - My Name Is Red *Tom Perrotta - Election *Terry Pratchett **''Carpe Jugulum'' **''The Last Continent'' *David Adams Richards - The Bay of Love and Sorrows *Philip Roth - I Married a Communist *J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets *Louis Sachar - Holes *Michael Slade - Shrink aka Primal Scream *Michael Stackpole - I, Jedi *Danielle Steel **''The Klone and I'' **''The Long Road Home'' **''Mirror Image'' *Thomas Sullivan - The Martyring *Andrew Vachss - Safe House *Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog *A. N. Wilson - Dream Children *Tom Wolfe - A Man in Full *Timothy Zahn - Vision of the Future *José Luis Rodríguez Pittí - Crónica de invisibles New drama *Edward Albee - The Play About the Baby *Michael Frayn - Copenhagen *David Hare - The Blue Room *Marius von Mayenburg - Fireface (Feuergesicht) Poetry *Dejan Stojanović, Krugovanje: 1978–1987 (Circling), Second Edition, Narodna knjiga, Alfa, Beograd, 1998Web page titled Krugovanje, Second Edition, Dejan Stojanović at the Internet Archive Non-fiction *Charlotte Allen - The Human Christ: The Search For The Historical Jesus *Harold Bloom - Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human *Bill Bryson - Notes from a Big Country *Peter Cannon (editor) - Lovecraft Remembered *Esther Delisle - Myths, Memories & Lies: Quebec's Intelligentsia and the Fascist Temptation, 1939-1960 (Essais sur l'imprégnation fasciste au Québec) *Gerina Dunwich - Wicca A to Z *Amanda Foreman - Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire *Jonathan Freedland - Bring Home the Revolution *John Fowles - Wormholes - Essays and Occasional Writings *Jesse Lee Kercheval, Space *Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian *Alan I. Marcus - Building Western Civilization: From the Advent of Writing to the Age of Steam - *John Pilger - Hidden Agendas *Marilee Strong - A Bright Red Scream *Jules Witcover, David Halberstam - The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America *Adam Zagajewski - Another Beauty Births * Deaths *January 2 - Frank Muir, comedy writer *January 11 - John Wells, satirical writer *January 23 - John Forbes, Australian poet *January 27 - Geoffrey Trease, historical novelist * February 7 - Lawrence Sanders, author *February 17 - Ernst Jünger, novelist and war memoirist *March 15 - Dr Benjamin Spock, childcare expert *April 11 - Francis Durbridge, playwright *April 19 - Octavio Paz, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature * April 27 - Pauline Réage, author *April 27 - Carlos Castaneda, author *May 9 - Nat Perrin, comedy writer * June 10 - Hammond Innes, novelist * June 11 - Dame Catherine Cookson, bestselling novelist *July 1 - Martin Seymour-Smith, biographer *July 5 - Johnny Speight, comedy writer *July 9 - Ian Wallace, science fiction author * July 14 - Miroslav Holub, Czech poet *July 23 - John Hopkins, film and television writer *September 28 - Eric Malling, journalist *October 22 - Eric Ambler, novelist *October 28 - Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate of Great Britain *November 3 - Bob Kane, comics artist and writer, creator of Batman *November 8 - Rumer Godden, novelist Awards * Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago Australia * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Jennifer Kremmer, Pegasus in the Suburbs * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Coral Hull, Broken Land * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: No awards were presented this year * Mary Gilmore Prize: Emma Lew The Wild Reply Canada * Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award: Talya Rubin * See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. * Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman France * Prix Décembre: Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires * Prix Goncourt: Paule Constant, * Prix Médicis French: * Prix Médicis International: - Jonathan Coe United Kingdom * Booker Prize: Ian McEwan - Amsterdam * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: David Almond, Skellig * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More * Cholmondeley Award: Roger McGough, Robert Minhinnick, Anne Ridler, Ken Smith * Eric Gregory Award: Mark Goodwin, Joanne Limburg, Patrick McGuinness, Kona Macphee, Esther Morgan, Christiania Whitehead, Frances Williams * Orange Prize for Fiction: Carol Shields, Larry's Party * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Les Murray * Whitbread Best Book Award: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters United States * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Shara McCallum, The Water Between Us * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: X.J. Kennedy * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Horton Foote * American Book Award Before Columbus Foundation: Angela Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, and (separately) Allison Hedge Coke, Dog Road Woman * Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry: Sherod Santos, "Elegy for My Sister", and (separately) Neil Azevedo, "Caspar Hauser Songs" * Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry: Frank Bidart, Desire * Compton Crook Award: Katie Waitman, The Merro Tree * Hugo Award for Best Novel: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace * Frost Medal: Stanley Kunitz * Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Philip Roth, American Pastoral * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Charles Wright, Black Zodiac * Wallace Stevens Award: A. R. Ammons Elsewhere * IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: Herta Muller, The Land of Green Plums *Premio Nadal: Lucía Etxebarria, Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes References * Literature Category:Years in literature